Pentagon’s attempt to ban books from base schools faces backlash from military families

Geoff Bennett:

The Trump administration made it clear from its earliest days this year that it wanted to change the culture of the U.S. military. One effort targeted books about race, gender and sexuality in the libraries of military-based schools that service members' children attend.

But, this week, a federal judge ruled that the books taken off the shelves had to be returned and the curriculum of the military changed had to be restored. Before the ruling,

Nick Schifrin and producer Dan Sagalyn traveled outside Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to speak to military families that fought through the courts for our series Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy, part of our Canvas coverage.

Jessica Henninger, Military Spouse:

I can read to you while you eat your snackie.

Nick Schifrin:

For Jessica Henninger reading is fundamental.

Jessica Henninger:

"A perfect plan, you say? A perfect way to spend the day?"

Nick Schifrin:

And she's tried to spend her days reading with her kids to help them better understand the world.

Jessica Henninger:

Max says: "I will get some milk for you." She says: Let's take some crackers too."

Girl:

Yes, that's what we have.

Jessica Henninger:

You do have crackers.

I remember as a child growing up in a very small community. Books were really the only opportunity that I had to open up my world to different ideas and things outside of what I understood.

Nick Schifrin:

Henninger is a soldier spouse and the parent of five…

Jessica Henninger:

If it gets scary, let me know.

Nick Schifrin:

… who let us visit her family near Fort Campbell recently as long as we kept the kids anonymous. She supported her five children through play and education.

All of them are attending or graduating from Defense Department elementary and high schools, no matter where they have been based, from Kentucky to Vicenza, Italy.

Jessica Henninger:

Our kids have consistently gotten a fantastic education, no matter where we have been stationed. And to just really be immersed in that diversity, I think, is a wonderful strength of what we have in the military.

Man:

I now declare you graduates of Fort Campbell High School.

Nick Schifrin:

The Defense Department runs 161 schools across 10 time zones, with 67,000 children of service members and civilian department employees. Classes run from pre-K through 12th grade.

Man:

The military may choose where we go, but we choose what we do to make our lives meaningful.

Jessica Henninger:

I always vetted out the education systems when we would move places to make sure that my children had a top-notch education and that they were going to be set up for success later on in life. And so that is part of the reason why I got involved in this lawsuit.

Nick Schifrin:

In April, Henninger and five other military families serving on three continents filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense's Education Activity, or DoDEA, for — quote — "quarantining library books and whitewashing curricula," calling it — quote — "systemwide censorship."

Among 596 books the schools removed, Ta-Nehisi Coates "Between the World and Me," Isabel Wilkerson's "Caste," and the AP psychology textbook, which has a gender and sex module, also removed, "A Queer History of the United States for Young People," "When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times," and "You-Ology: A Puberty Guide for EVERY Body."

The schools also removed portions of the middle school sex education course.

Jessica Henninger:

The determination about what is appropriate for our children to consume in the libraries and the curriculum has always been left up to the experts, the people in the school who cultivate the libraries and the curriculum.

And I think that's where it should be. Teaching an awareness of where we came from and making sure that we don't make those same mistakes again, that's not political. That's education.

Nick Schifrin:

At this point, are you considering removing your kids from DoDEA or have you heard of any cases of families thinking, you know what, we want out of the system?

Jessica Henninger:

I had a very serious conversation with my husband where I told him that if our children's education seemed like it was going to be hijacked by political ideation, that I would not feel comfortable keeping our children in the DoDEA system.

That's a heavy conversation to have to have with your significant other who is in the military and doesn't have a choice in where they go. Potentially talking about splitting up your family, it's heavy.

Donald Trump, President of the United States: It will stop our service members from being indoctrinated with radical left ideologies.

Nick Schifrin:

The changes come from a series of January executive orders that targeted — quote — "un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist and irrational theories, divisive concepts that American founding documents are racist or sexist and gender ideology."

And in a court filing, the administration wrote: "The curriculum and book reviews were undertaken to implement DoDEA's current pedagogical approach to teaching schoolchildren regarding gender and sexuality and to better promote an inclusive environment" and — quote — "Curating a library collection or developing a teaching curriculum is an act of government speech. It is therefore not subject to rigorous scrutiny under the First Amendment's free speech clause."

Corey Shapiro, Legal Director, ACLU of Kentucky: This is a public school. They are entitled to the same First Amendment rights as any student in any public school in this country. It's always important to shine a light on what the government is doing.

Nick Schifrin:

Corey Shapiro is the American Civil Liberty Union's Kentucky legal director and one of the lawyers who sued DoDEA and Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Their focus is what they call war fighting. Their focus is on removing what they see as an ideology. If that's how they think, don't they have the right to say, well, we believe that this is a threat to our kids and we're in charge of the system, so therefore we can change it?

Corey Shapiro:

What they don't necessarily have the right to do and the First Amendment protects is a student's ability to access that information. And in the library in particular, the idea that the government can somehow determine what ideas can and cannot be even just accessed by students, that's where the First Amendment steps in and protects those kids' ability to access that information.

Nick Schifrin:

This week, the court agreed, writing — quote — "The implementation process of book removals appears to this court to be inconsistent, unstructured and nontransparent."

The judge ordered the books returned and the curricula restored, but only in the five schools listed in the lawsuit. It's not clear yet if the administration will appeal, but this is a larger fight for Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Pete Hegseth, U.S. Defense Secretary:

I remember coming home from public school in like 10th grade and saying: "Dad, why is Ronald Reagan always the bad guy in the textbooks?"

Nick Schifrin:

Long before he became secretary, Hegseth criticized government education as too liberal.

Pete Hegseth:

I grew up in a conservative, God-fearing regular old small-town America Minnesota, because the textbooks are written by lefties in New York City. Get your kids out of government school systems right now, if you can, if you have any way. Save money, move, get a second job, don't take the vacation, sell the boat, whatever, drive for Uber.

Figure out what you need to do to get your kid out of the government school system because it's about saving your kid right now.

Nick Schifrin:

For Henninger and her family, they have to believe in government schools because it comes with their choice to serve the country.

Jessica Henninger:

My children have the same rights to freedom of education as every other student in this country. Just because their father is in the military doesn't make their rights any less important.

Nick Schifrin:

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin in Clarksville, Tennessee.